Re: Love & Magic

After eating and taking the kids and mother Helena back to the orphanage, Zevien, Vernisia, Erica, and Dan left the orphanage in the SUV and drove back to the academy.

“So, how do we do it—?” Erica asked.

“And what will we do to them?” Dan continued Erica’s question.

Zevien coldly smiled and spoke, “I have already thought of what to do with him and the other three. It’s a matter of how we will do it.”

“What did you think of? It had better be something they never forget in their whole life,” Vernisia said while grinding her teeth.

“The plan is to bind them and leave them in the middle of a road…totally naked,” Zevien uttered icily, “since they like to humiliate others, they must taste the same thing.”

“But how do we do that?” Erica asked with doubt.

“Don’t worry, I got a plan, hehe,” Zevien grinned as he contacted Skelly through his Digi-watch.

Zevien—, “Yo, Skelly. Are you still at the Umbra Alchemist House or back to your workshop?”

Skelly—, “I’ve already taught the crafting process to those alchemists, so I am back at my workshop. Also, Miss Raven has prepared the contract and wants your signature. I’ve already signed my part.”

Zevien—, “I’ll go there tomorrow. But for now, I want your help. You can craft that tier-1 Dizzy Sleep potion, right?”

Skelly—, “I can. I have two on spare right now as well.”

Zevien—, “Perfect. We are coming to get those two while you prepare two more.”

…

After ending the call, Zevien looked at the others with a smile, “you should know about that Dizzy Sleep potion. We just need to throw it at them, and after it breaks, it will produce a burst of gas that will put them to sleep in a second. They were not even 5th class magicians so this tier-1 potion will work on them quickly.”

“Their locations?” Vernisia asked, “how do we find that?”

Zevien fell into thought before remembering a guy from before the time rewind, ‘I wonder if he was still doing this thing at this time? Hmmm, guess I need to contact him and check it myself.’

He activated his Digi-watch and put someone’s number before calling.

Soon, Zevien heard someone’s voice from the other side.

???—, “Who are you? How did you get my number? You are not on my contact list.”

But before Zevien could reply, the guy spoke again.

???—, “Zevien, 17-year-old, a first-year student of the national academy. I am curious; how did you get my number?”

Zevien wryly smiled while thinking, ‘alright, this guy is already doing his work of espionage.’

Vernisia and others could hear him since Zevien put it on a loudspeaker, and they were also startled.

Zevien spoke, not startled at all, “Yowen Schrenia, 19-year-old. I know many things about you and things you might be interested in. But for now, I don’t have time to tell you about them.”

…

At some other place in the city, Yowen looked at his nine monitors and several CPUs in his room while drinking soda. Yowen had long, messy black hair and a beard as he wore a casual t-shirt and shorts. There were also some digital waves exuding mana coming out of his cpu.

When he heard the other party speaking his real name out loud, he spat his drink, and his face turned somber.

He spoke hesitantly, “how do you know my real name?”

Zevien—, “That is not important, my friend. You need to know that I am not your enemy, and I called you for some business. I want information and the locations of four people. You can check the footage of Cloud Heaven Restaurant’s CCTVs, the footage of around 9:00 PM tonight, and you will know which four people I am talking about.”

After Zevien finished speaking, Yowen started typing on his keyboard, and some other keyboard-like devices before the footage of Cloud Heaven Restaurant appeared on three of his monitors.

He checked the footage at around 9:00 PM and observed before understanding the whole matter.

“Hmmm!…,” Yowen suddenly saw something else in the footage and grinned, “interesting….”

…

After five minutes, Zevien finally heard the voice of Yowen again.

Yowen—, “I sent you a live map, and the red dot on the map is the location of those four people. They are together right now. Do whatever you want. Oh, and I won’t take fees from you this time. Good luck.”

“Who is this guy, Zevien?” Dan asked while scratching his head, “sounds like he is some sort of a genius hacker or something.”

“Indeed, he is,” Zevien nodded with a smile. ‘But his future is bleak. If I can save him, he can be my wild card, especially because of his magic labyrinth.’

“Let’s go and get the magic potions first. After that, we will tail them for some hours. Their current location is in a party club, and I think they will likely stay outside for some more hours,” Zevien said with a cold glint in his eyes, “we can execute our plan between 3 AM to 4 AM when there aren’t many people outside.”

“Then let’s go,” Vernisia said with narrowed eyes as she cracked her knuckles and stood up.

They left the academy again in Vernisia’s SUV and arrived at Skelly’s alchemy workshop.

After twenty minutes, four tier-1 Dizzy sleep potions were ready.

Zevien and the others left the workshop at a quarter to midnight after getting the potions and arrived near the party club. They stayed five hundred meters away from the club and just waited in the car.

…

On the other hand, inside Touma’s research lab.

Cargil, Raven, Blondina, Mexar, Tulip, and Touma were standing outside the glass chamber while observing the experiment.

A person inside the glass chamber was going through the same thing as Zevien. His skeleton was attached to the bed and cuffed while his flesh body had turned into some sort of energy and was whirling around in the air. One could hear painful screams from it.

“Is his readings the same as Zevien?” Cargil asked.

“Not quite the same, but close,” Touma spoke as his brows slightly creased.

After a while, the man’s skeleton slowly turned normal from its mystical black appearance. The mana-like energy whirling in the air also gradually returned to his skeleton before turning into a fleshy body.

However, the man was not breathing.

Everyone entered inside as Merax touched the man’s forehead and did something while closing his eyes.

After three seconds, he opened his eyes and shook his head, “dead. His magic eidos body dispersed.”

“What went wrong?” Cargil asked with a frown.

“The process appeared the same as what happened to Zevien from the start till the end,” Touma muttered with a frown, “he indeed managed to endure to the end but then….how did he die?”

“Was it because he was a tier-1 magician? Or is it his age? Or just that he didn’t have any fault in his magic eidos body like Zevien?” Blondina asked as she speculated.

“We must find out why Zevien succeeded, but this guy failed despite having no significant differences between their process,” Tupil spoke thoughtfully. He was another middle-aged man in the group. He wore a tuxedo suit and had combed black hair with tall body stature.

“Commence the second experiment right away,” Cargil spoke indifferently, “bring Lopaz into the lab.”

“Sir Cargil, please think one more time about it,” Raven spoke with some hesitation, “Lopaz is your grandchild.”

*Clank…*

“So what!”

A young man around twenty years old entered the lab with a determined expression that hid tremendous frustration and shame.

“I couldn’t awaken my magic labyrinth, and my magic eidos body’s initial mana capacity was low from the start! I would rather die than live my life as someone useless,” Lopaz shouted with incredible frustration.

He walked inside the glass chamber and picked up the dead man before putting him outside the glass chamber on the floor before he lay on the bed, “do it!”

Cargil didn’t say anything and kept a stoic expression.

“Lopaz, think again,” Merax said with a frown, “there might be some other ways in the future.”

“I can’t wait!” Lopaz uttered, “I don’t want to live uselessly while waiting for some uncertain future. If that Zevien guy succeeded, then I can too!”

“Start the experiment,” Cargil spoke unhurriedly.

“I will not disappoint you, grandpa,” Lopaz said as he looked at Cargil with resolve.

“You have never disappointed me,” Cargil spoke as his eyes twitched slightly.

Cargil also cared for his grandchild, and that’s why he was constantly bugging Zevien about the experiment and wanted as much as precise information about the experiment from him.

The reason for that was none other than Lopaz, who also wanted to be part of this experiment.

Raven looked at Cargil and spoke straightforwardly, “what if he failed?”

The locked hands of Cargil behind his back tightened when he heard that. But his expression remained calm and stoic, “if Zevien succeeded, my grandchild would also succeed.”

“Old man, you should go out,” Touma said to Cargil with a plain expression.

Cargil looked at Touma for several seconds before turning around and leaving the lab.

Afterward, Touma went out of the glass chamber to pick up the two serums and an orb before arriving beside Lopaz.

“Are you truly ready for it?”

“I am!” Lopaz uttered without a shred of hesitation.

…

1:40 AM

“They left the club,” Zevien said as he looked at the map in the hologram of his Digi-watch, “follow them.”